Friday, February 19, 2016

Erdogan Supports ISIS Looking for Any Reason to Kill Kurds

This morning, according to the Syria Observatory and the Arabic press some 500 Sunni Arab rebels based in Turkey crossed back into Syria to help defend the town of Azaz from the YPG miitia of Syrian Kurds, which is advancing on the city. They were allowed to bring their light and heavy weapons through the official Turkish checkpoint, pointing to Turkish collusion with their covert mission.

h/t BBC.

Kurds comprise about 10 percent of Syria’s population, mainly in the northeast of the country. Most Syrians speak Arabic, but Kurds speak an Indo-European language related to English. For the most part they have not taken on the regime (though there is an anti-Assad Kurdish militia in the Aleppo region), targeting al-Qaeda, the Salafi jihadis and ISIL instead.

Kurds used to live in three unconnected cantons in the north of Syria along the Turkish border. They dream of uniting them into a contiguous Kurdish territory that they call Rojava. Although they are also mostly Sunni Muslims, the Syrian Kurds are relatively secular-minded and their main militia, the YPG or People’s Defense Units, is on the far left, urging women’s equality and a socialist economy. The Syrian Kurds have united the eastern canton of Jazeera with Kobane to its west. Now only Afrin in the far west is cut off from the other Kurdish regions.

In recent weeks, Russian airstrikes gave support to the Syrian Arab Army, Hezbollah and other pro-regime forces to break the siege on East Aleppo by al-Qaeda (the Nusra Front) and other rebel groups and to begin taking territory just north of Aleppo.

Kurdish fighters in the northwestern canton of Afrin took advantage of this weakening of the rebel forces to move east and take several villages. They now seek control over Azaz itself, and then hope to move east so as to hook up with the other two Kurdish cantons, forming a contiguous Kurdish state along the border with Turkey, which they call Rojava. This plan infuriates Ankara, which fears separatism among its own Kurds (some 20% of the Turkish population). Just on Wednesday, a car bomb killed at least 28 in the Turkish capital, likely the work of the radical Kurdistan Workers Party, with which the Syrian YPG is vaguely affiliated. But Russia and even possibly the US do not have any problems with it, since a Rojava Kurdistan would be in a position to stop the flow of arms, ammunition and money from Turkey into Syria.

Turkey has been shelling Syrian Kurdish positions from the Turkish side of the border for the past few days, despite pressure from the Obama administration and from France to cease and desist. that shelling has proved ineffectual, failing to halt Kurdish advances against the Sunni Arab rebels (including al-Qaeda but also Muslim Brotherhood groups).

The Syrian Observatory alleged that the Sunni Arab fighters who crossed at Bab al-Salama are backed by Turkey. This allegation is at least plausible, since Turkey controls the checkpoint and it let them through.

The Observatory says the fighters are a mix of Muslim fundamentalists and secularists.

Among the other highlights:-- Trump was confronted with a BuzzFeed story showing that Trump had, in 2002, said “Yeah, I guess so,” when asked about invading Iraq. Trump didn’t skip a beat in saying, “I could have said that” on Thursday before trying to wash away his old comments by saying, “By the time the war start I was against the war.”-- In the day’s other controversy, Trump said he would meet with Pope Francis “any time he wants” after a public spat Thursday in which the Pope suggested Trump was “not Christian” for his support for building a wall with Mexico. “He’s got an awfully big wall at the Vatican,” Trump said, adding he believed the Pope’s words had been misinterpreted and magnified by the media.

...

-- Trump also continued to rail against Sen. Ted Cruz, calling him dishonest. “He holds up the Bible and then he lies.

Last, but not least, "El Papa" just visited Cuba. He hugged and embraced Raul Castro, a man who has executed priests, harassed religious leaders and closed Christian schools years ago. Did he call the Castro brothers UnChristian?

Pope Francis is a good man but he needs a few people around him to protect him from himself.

Mom Whose Son Was Tortured to Death by Illegal Endorses Trump, Says ‘Pope Doesn’t Care About Me’

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Pope say one thing about our families [families who have lost loved ones at the hands of illegal immigrants]. I’m not sure he understands the loss we have felt. Is he just ignoring that? It rubbed me the wrong way,” Wilkerson told Breitbart.

Wilkerson’s 18-year-old son Joshua was tortured to death by a so-called DREAMER — i.e. an illegal immigrant who allegedly came to the country as a minor.

Wilkerson further explained that she was not surprised that Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)86% — who has pushed to give citizenship to DREAMers like the illegal immigrant who murdered Wilkerson’s son — endorsed Rubio. She said, “I know why he threw his vote behind Rubio. Gowdy knows that Rubio is going to get in and do what he wants to do– which is open borders. Obviously Rubio wants more immigration, no borders. That’s what his backers want and that’s the way he’s going to vote.”

Wilkerson put forth a challenge to Gowdy and Rubio, who both have pushed for open border immigration policies: “I would tell Trey Gowdy and Marco Rubio, ‘Open your front door to anyone who wants to walk in and out. Open your front door.’”

Serena Shim, a U.S. citizen from Michigan and mother of two, was working for Iran's state-owned network Press TV when she was killed after the rental car she was riding in collided with a cement mixer Oct. 26 in the Turkish town of Suruc, near the Turkish-Syrian border. The accident came just days after Shim said she had been threatened by Turkish intelligence services, who accused her of being a spy.

"I believe my daughter gave her life for the truth," Judy Poe, Shim’s mother, told FoxNews.com Friday from her home in Harrison Township, Mich. "I absolutely suspect foul play."

Shim and Irish were inexplicably taken to hospitals over 25 miles apart from each other by Turkish military officials, not police, who ‘investigated’ the wreck. After outrage from Shim’s family, Turkish authorities — who first claimed they were unable to locate the vehicle responsible for hitting Shim and Irish — eventually produced photos of the accident, which they then claimed had been caused by a cement truck driver.---In reality, Shim had “uncovered evidence of secret Western assistance to the Islamic State” — a particularly touchy subject for Erdoğan, as seen in the arrests of Dünbar and Gül. Her video evidence of this assistance — reportedly “proof of Islamic State terrorists using United Nations World Food Program vehicles for a convoy” into Syria, likely akin to Dünbar and Gül’s discovery — has never been recovered. Her passport and wedding ring, seized by Turkish authorities sometime after her death, have never been returned to her family.

Turkish military vehicles have crossed into a Kurdistani area in Syria, Afrin, just over the border, a Kurdish news agency reported adding that the troops started to dig a trench near Meidan Ekbis, a town in Aleppo province.Dozens of Turkish military vehicles advanced 200 meters into the Syrian Kurdish region in Aleppo province on Thursday, ANHA news agency reported.

It added that the troops started digging a trench between the towns of Sorka and Meydan Ekbis. According to the agency the construction of a concrete wall on the Syrian border in the area is ongoing as well.

As both Turkey and Israel take a more active role in supporting the Islamic Stae, it is important to remember why ...

Profits from 'conflict oil' are driving both regimes to act militarily in support of the Islamic State and al-Qeada.

Israel is the Main Purchaser of ISIS OilBy Enrico BraunGlobal Research, December 05, 2015Citing multiple sources, the Israeli business press are now reporting that Israel is the main recipient of ISIS oil:

Kurdish and Turkish smugglers are transporting oil from ISIS controlled territory in Syria and Iraq and selling it to Israel, according to several reports in the Arab and Russian media. An estimated 20,000-40,000 barrels of oil are produced daily in ISIS controlled territory generating $1-1.5 million daily profit for the terrorist organization.

The oil is extracted from Dir A-Zur in Syria and two fields in Iraq and transported to the Kurdish city of Zakhu in a triangle of land near the borders of Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Israeli and Turkish mediators come to the city and when prices are agreed, the oil is smuggled to the Turkish city of Silop marked as originating from Kurdish regions of Iraq and sold for $15-18 per barrel (WTI and Brent Crude currently sell for $41 and $45 per barrel) to the Israeli mediator, a man in his 50s with dual Greek-Israeli citizenship known as Dr. Farid. He transports the oil via several Turkish ports and then onto other ports, with Israel among the main destinations.It’s been well-established that Turkey is a major transportation hub for ISIS oil smuggling operations. But where is the oil sent? Someone has to buy it. The answer is: Israel.

That attack in Aleppo last month was one of at least 89 cases over the past year in which the Islamic State employed children or teenagers in suicide missions, according to new research that indicates the terrorist group is sending youths to their deaths in greater and greater numbers.

The father-son sequence was memorialized in propaganda photos released last month by the Islamic State, adding to an expanding collection of online eulogies that provides insight into how the organization uses children in both combat operations and mass-casualty attacks on civilians in Iraq and Syria.

You continually misread what is written, seeing what is not there.But it does provide a confirmation, of sorts."Stories happen in the mind of a reader, not among symbols printed on a page.” ― Brandon Mull

Bush machine running on fumesPolitico - ‎SUMMERVILLE, S.C. - Some of Jeb Bush's most steadfast allies think Saturday might be the end. Donors, who poured millions into his campaign and super PAC, have stopped giving - one refusing a direct request to raise $1 million this week

JERUSALEM — Hanin Zoabi, an Israeli Arab, believes Israeli Jews are colonialists who stole Palestinian land. She makes no distinction between the recent deaths of Israeli civilians and their attackers, calling both “victims of the Israeli occupation.”

Those are typical views of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as some Arab citizens of Israel like Zoabi. But for her to make such comments strikes many Jews as incendiary — because she is also a member of Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

As well as the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon of South Korea.

As well as the Catholic leadership of the LeavantCatholic Church in Israel blames Jewish state for current Palestinian violencehttp://www.jpost.com/Christian-News/Catholic-church-in-Israel-accuses-Israel-of-responsibility-for-current-Palestinian-violence-445375

"As well as the Catholic leadership of the LeavantCatholic Church in Israel blames Jewish state for current Palestinian violence"

First you should learn how to spell

Leavant??

No the term is NOT Leavant.

The Levant (/ləˈvænt/; Arabic: المشرق /ʔal-maʃriq/[1][5][6][7][8][9][10]) is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the eastern Mediterranean. In its widest historical sense, the Levant included all of the eastern Mediterranean with its islands,[3] that is, it included all of the countries along the eastern Mediterranean shores, extending from Greece to Cyrenaica.[1][2] The term Levant entered English in the late 15th century from French.[3] It derives from the Italian Levante, meaning "rising", implying the rising of the sun in the east.[1][2] As such, it is broadly equivalent to the Arabic term Mashriq,[5] 'the land where the sun rises'. The western counterpart in Arabic is the Maghreb,[5] and Ponente in Italian, meaning 'west, where the sun sets'.[11]

JERUSALEM — Hanin Zoabi, an Israeli Arab, believes Israeli Jews are colonialists who stole Palestinian land. She makes no distinction between the recent deaths of Israeli civilians and their attackers, calling both “victims of the Israeli occupation.”

Those are typical views of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as some Arab citizens of Israel like Zoabi. But for her to make such comments strikes many Jews as incendiary — because she is also a member of Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

She should be tried and striped of her citizenship and deported to Gaza.

She is a traitor to Israel and as such she should be legally punished.

Now in Gaza or the West Bank? If she was a pro-israel Arab? She'd be executed.

The shocking interview with Hassan Al-Laham, who holds the title “mufti of Gaza,” came during a weekly Palestinian Authority TV program on social issues. Explaining that divorce must be a last resort in Islam, Al-Laham laid out the four steps that should come first.

"Allah said: Warn them [the wives], and separate from them, and hit them, and bring an arbitrator from his family and an arbitrator from her family," he said.

Al-Laham, whose title makes him the top spiritual leader appointed by the Palestinian Authority, then went into detail about how a husband should hit a wife.

"Not hitting that will bring the police, and break her hand and cause bleeding, or hitting that makes the face ugly," he said.

The hitting should "be like a joke," even reinforcing "the love and friendship" between the couple, he said.

Because nothing says "I love you" like a "friendly" slap across the face.

The segment was flagged by the nonprofit watchdog Palestinian Media Watch. Director Itamar Marcus noted that the Palestinian Authority, which appointed Al-Laham and is responsible for the television programming which is beamed by satellite throughout the Arab world, is viewed as more moderate than Hamas, the terrorist group that governs Gaza.

“They actually think this is a moderate message – that it is okay to beat your wife,” Marcus told FoxNews.com. “This is their perception.”

Conflicts in the Middle East, including the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS, are raising serious new risks to regional oil facilities, making them both strategic assets and spoils of war.

Oil has shaped international conflict for many decades. According to one estimate, between 25% to 50% of interstate wars between 1973 and 2012 have oil-related linkages. Still, the cyclical nature of oil’s contribution to global conflict is not well understood. Not only are oil prices cyclical, but the geopolitics of oil is linked inexorably to the same boom and bust price cycle. Military adventurism, proxy wars and regional pathologies in the Middle East expand and contract with the ebb and flow of massive petro-dollar accumulations and recycling related to the oil price cycle. The massive inflow of petro-dollar revenues when oil prices are high create disposable income that can be easily dispensed on regional arms races, especially since oil consuming countries like the United States and Europe are incentivized to increase arms sales to solve oil import-related trade deficits. Then as oil prices recede following the impacts of prolonged high prices, which stimulate new supplies and slowing demand through economic slowdown, substitution and conservation, social and political problems in the region reemerge. Regional governments have less resources to spend on restive populations who have become accustomed to generous hand-outs enabled by high oil prices. Job creation and visible social programs slow, dissatisfaction rises, and the consequences of economic down-cycles incite support for militants inside the borders of petro-states. Ensuing instability forces governments to use newly purchased arms, which ironically begins the cycle yet again by putting oil producing geography in the path of violence, leading to oil price spikes and disruption that drive the next boom and financing for replenishment of military equipment....

(IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – A source in the army’s Tenth Division Command said on Thursday, that 32 ISIS elements had been killed in an aerial bombing by the army’s air force east of Ramadi.

The source said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The army’s air force, in coordination with the army’s Tenth Division, managed to bombard a number of shelters and targets belonging to ISIS on the international highway road in the area of al-Hamediyah east of Ramadi,” pointing out that, “The bombing resulted in killing 32 ISIS elements as well as the destruction of those shelters and targets.”

(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – A source in the Joint Special Operations Command announced on Thursday, that 30 fighters of the so-called ISIS had been killed in an aerial bombardment targeted their hideout in western Ramadi (110 km west of Baghdad).

The source said in a press statement received by IraqiNews.com, “The Iraqi Air Force aircrafts, based on accurate intelligence information, carried out an air strike on ISIS hideout in al-Bikr neighborhood in Heet District (70 km west of Ramadi), killing 30 members belonging to ISIS.”

The source added, on condition of anonymity, “The air strike also resulted in the destruction of eight vehicles belonging to ISIS, including three car bombs.”

(IraqiNews.com) Anbar – The leadership of al-Hashed al-Shaabi in Anbar Province announced on Thursday, that the security forces advanced inside al-Karma District east of Fallujah, while indicated to the killing of dozens of ISIS fighters.

The commander of the 1st battalion in al-Hashed al-Shaabi Col. Mahmoud al-Jumaili said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The security forces carried out a large-scale military operation on the areas of al-Karma District (19 km east of Fallujah).”

The statement added, “The security forces advanced for three kilometers into the depth of al-Karma areas, and managed to kill dozens of ISIS members.”

WASHINGTON, February 18, 2016 — As the U.S.-led coalition’s air campaign to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq and Syria brings its capabilities to the fight, joint interoperability continues to degrade the terrorist organization, the commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command said today.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who also serves as Combined Forces Air Component commander for Operation Inherent Resolve, briefed Pentagon reporters on progress in the coalition’s counter-ISIL air operations via teleconference from an air operations center in Al Udeid, Qatar.

The interoperability among the coalition nations is built upon “years of combined training and multilateral exercises [that have] been key to our continued success in the air campaign,” Brown emphasized.

“There is no doubt coalition air power has and continues to dramatically degrade [ISIL’s] ability to fight and conduct operations,” he added.

While persistent air coverage continually exploits ISIL’s weaknesses, “we are more effective today than ever before,” the general said. “We're conducting the most precise air campaign in history, and we're able to attrit [ISIL] and its capabilities any time and anywhere.”

Targeting Areas for Defeat

Targeting ISIL logistics, command and control and weapons manufacturing are some of the areas in which the coalition has had increased success, he said.

“We've had notable success in targeting [ISIL’s] financial resources,” Brown said, adding that ISIL has been forced to cut its fighters’ pay as a result of strikes carried out to disrupt its illicit financial operations.

Videos showed Air Force and Navy aircraft using precision-guided munitions in airstrikes on financial storage and distribution centers, which Brown explained were planned to minimize collateral damage and to confine risk to just a matter of minutes.

Video Player1 of 1 VIDEO: General Details Current Counter-ISIL PlansLt. Gen. Charles Brown, Jr., commander of U.S. Air Forces Central, briefed reporters at the Pentagon, Feb. 18, 2016, with details regarding current plans to work with partner nations to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant by using targeted airstrikes.

1PRINT | E-MAIL | CONTACT AUTHORWASHINGTON, February 18, 2016 — As the U.S.-led coalition’s air campaign to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq and Syria brings its capabilities to the fight, joint interoperability continues to degrade the terrorist organization, the commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command said today.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who also serves as Combined Forces Air Component commander for Operation Inherent Resolve, briefed Pentagon reporters on progress in the coalition’s counter-ISIL air operations via teleconference from an air operations center in Al Udeid, Qatar.

The interoperability among the coalition nations is built upon “years of combined training and multilateral exercises [that have] been key to our continued success in the air campaign,” Brown emphasized.

“There is no doubt coalition air power has and continues to dramatically degrade [ISIL’s] ability to fight and conduct operations,” he added.

While persistent air coverage continually exploits ISIL’s weaknesses, “we are more effective today than ever before,” the general said. “We're conducting the most precise air campaign in history, and we're able to attrit [ISIL] and its capabilities any time and anywhere.”

Targeting ISIL logistics, command and control and weapons manufacturing are some of the areas in which the coalition has had increased success, he said.

“We've had notable success in targeting [ISIL’s] financial resources,” Brown said, adding that ISIL has been forced to cut its fighters’ pay as a result of strikes carried out to disrupt its illicit financial operations.

Videos showed Air Force and Navy aircraft using precision-guided munitions in airstrikes on financial storage and distribution centers, which Brown explained were planned to minimize collateral damage and to confine risk to just a matter of minutes.

Another video shown during Brown’s briefing demonstrated how recent United Kingdom and Saudi Arabian airstrikes used four precision-guided munitions to destroy a weapons storage facility, limiting ISIL’s ability to resupply its fighters, he said.

The Iraqi security forces’ ability to retake the city of Ramadi from ISIL control is one example of how vital air power is in the counter-ISIL fight, Brown said, adding that airstrikes also have been critical in partner-force operations to take back Sinjar in Iraq and Hasakah, and the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates River in Syria.

Persistent air power has halted ISIL, and its leaders and fighters are disappearing in large numbers, the general said, adding that the enemy fears the coalition’s air power.

“This is due to our operational reach and flexibility, our precision and lethality, and our constant presence and responsiveness,” Brown said, vowing to continue delivering airstrikes to destroy and defeat ISIL.

In Syria, where the Russians and the U.S.-led coalition already comply with a memorandum of understanding for flight safety, the Russian military has also avoided certain areas where U.S. special operators and coalition forces are deployed, Brown noted.

The general areas in which U.S. and coalition forces operate was shared with Russia "out of an abundance of safety for our special operations," he said, adding that the Russians also shared similar information about its ground positions, such as its airfields in western Syria.

"We have made a request, and [the Russians] have honored that request," Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said, following the briefing.

In response to Donald Trump’s call for constructing a wall at our southern border so as to stem the illegal migrations into our country, Pope Francis indicated that Mr. Trump is “not a Christian,” since, as the pope says, “Christians build bridges, not walls.”

As a rabbi, it is not for me to decide what is Christian; however, I can speak to what the Bible says about such matters.........

ANKARA, Turkey — The Turkish president’s patience was running out. His EU interlocutors were offering him 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) for stemming the flow of Syrian refugees to Europe.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reminded Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU Commission president, and Donald Tusk, the head of the EU Council, that a few months before they had given Greece 400 billion euros ($445 billion) to keep it afloat. According to the minutes of the meeting, Tusk replied that that money was not just for Greece but to support the entire eurozone. Erdogan said that a deal to constrain the refugees would support the Schengen visa-free travel agreement, another pan-European project.

The back-and-forth continued until Juncker pointedly recalled that the EU did Erdogan a favor the previous month. “Please note,” said Juncker, “that we postponed the progress report until after the Turkish elections, and we got criticized for this delay.” In other words, the EU delayed the release of a report highly critical of Turkey’s “progress” toward meeting EU standards of governance in order to help Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party win the general elections in November.

The revelation that the EU Commission is not above trying to influence Turkish elections appears in the minutes of the Erdogan-Tusk-Juncker meeting that took place on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Antalya on Nov. 15-16. Scans of the minutes, apparently written by EU stenographers, were published last week on a little-known Greek website...

It’s Friday, February 19, a date which will live in White House infamy. I’m borrowing Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous phrase about December 7, 1941, in reference to an infamous action taken two months later by FDR -- on this day in 1942.

Executive Order 9066 authorized the forced relocation of persons of Japanese descent living on the West Coast into wartime internment camps. Most of the men, women, and children covered by the edict were naturalized or American-born citizens.

The rationale cited in Executive Order 9066 was espionage, but the true causes were wartime hysteria, overt racism, and latent jealousy over the commercial and agricultural success of Japanese immigrants (issei) and their descendants, the nisei (second-generation) and sansei (third-generation).

From Washington state to Arizona, some 120,000 innocent people were rounded up under this order. I’ve written about this shameful chapter in American history previously. But with a presidential campaign taking place, and a leading candidate talking openly about barring Muslims from coming to this country, it seems more relevant than ever.

* * *

Donald Trump isn’t inventing the threat from ISIS, or from other foreign terrorist groups, or from murderous Muslim radicals living here in the United States. The San Bernardino couple who lived and worked among peaceful Southern Californians before slaughtering them at a Christmas party were a second-generation Pakistani Muslim and his immigrant bride.

What they did and how they did it -- and the fact that this immigrant bride was a new mother -- was a frightening new front in this war we are fighting, a conflict George W. Bush inexactly labeled the “War on Terror,” and which Barack Obama seems reluctant to name at all.

But how this nation responded two months after Pearl Harbor provides a valuable history lesson. Was the government being vigilant? Or hysterical? In this instance, the verdict has been officially rendered, although it took 46 years.

That judgment came in the form of legislation called the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The law, signed by President Reagan on August 10 that year, compensated all those still living who had been interned in the “relocation” camps with $20,000 and an apology from their government.

“The legislation that I am about to sign provides for a restitution payment to each of the 60,000 surviving Japanese-Americans of the 120,000 who were relocated or detained,” Reagan said. “Yet no payment can make up for those lost years. So, what is most important in this bill has less to do with property than with honor. For here we admit a wrong; here we reaffirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law...”

Reagan paid special notice in his signing statement to Norman Y. Mineta, then a member of California’s congressional delegation, one of the prime movers of the Japanese-American redress legislation.

Reagan read aloud Mineta’s own recollection of being rounded up with his family in San Jose, California, at age 10.

“My own family was sent first to Santa Anita Racetrack,” Mineta had written. “We showered in the horse paddocks. Some families lived in converted stables, others in hastily thrown together barracks. We were then moved to Heart Mountain, Wyoming, where our entire family lived in one small room of a rude tar paper barrack.”

The president also paid homage to the famed Nisei regiment, focusing on the central injustice of its formation:

“The 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up entirely of Japanese-Americans, served with immense distinction to defend this nation, their nation,” Reagan noted. “Yet back at home, the soldiers' families were being denied the very freedom for which so many of the soldiers themselves were laying down their lives.”

Among those soldiers was Daniel Inouye, the long-serving Democratic senator from Hawaii. Inouye, who lost an arm to a grenade while fighting in Italy, was later awarded a Medal of Honor for his valor. On the day the redress measure was enacted into law, Inouye maintained that although it was long overdue, it still should make Americans proud.

“Very few nations are strong enough to admit they’re wrong,” he said. “America is strong enough, and we did so.”

Inouye passed away a little more than three years ago. But my old friend Norm Mineta is still with us, and with an over-heated presidential election in full swing, I’ll give him the last word this morning.

“What happened in the past remains in the past,” Mineta said at a 2011 dedication of the Heart Mountain Interpretive Learning Center in Wyoming. “But it's not about the past. It's about the future, because history always has the ability to repeat itself.

Update: One source directed me to a Fox News interview yesterday with Gowdy for the source of the “crucial national security records” referenced in his statement. “You will hear new names that no one else has heard,” Gowdy said. “Even this past week, we got information from the CIA that no other committee of Congress has ever bothered to ask for or receive.” Hmmmmm.

Original post follows …

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Looks like we may find out sooner rather than later what the House Select Committee on Benghazi has found about the attack that left four Americans dead, dozens more waiting for help, and the policies that left them vulnerable in the first place. In a statement yesterday, chair Trey Gowdy announced that the committee should be able to “release a report as soon as possible,” and described how this probe has succeeded in finding a much broader set of data and testimony than other previous investigations. Apparently, a very recent development has fueled Gowdy’s optimism, emphasis mine (via Cortney O’Brien):

The Select Committee has made enormous progress this month. We interviewed a top State Department official, Patrick Kennedy, and after months and months of quiet negotiations with the White House, we finally were able to question both Susan Rice and Ben Rhodes. In addition, just last week, the committee gained access to crucial national security records we sought for nearly a year – records no other investigation has seen. While there are still witnesses to talk to and documents to review, these significant breakthroughs are big wins that will help the committee complete the most comprehensive investigation into what happened before, during and after the Benghazi terrorist attacks, and release a report as soon as possible.

What, pray tell, might those records be? And why did it take more than a year to gain access to them? The first impulse is to think this refers to Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, but those got turned over to State a year ago, and have been publicly released for months. Presumably, Congress got an advance look at those. The House formed the committee after the White House stiffed them on a subpoena for e-mails from Rhodes, but that was around two years ago. Why did it take so long for the committee to access these records, and why were they not made available immediately?

As teases go, that seems … pretty significant. Gowdy’s reference to them as “significant breakthroughs” raises the stakes, too. Clearly he envisions a report that tells a much different story than the whitewash that the Accountability Review Board delivered in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. Gowdy also emphasized the breadth of the Select Committee probe in comparison to that and other prior investigations:

Prior to the Select Committee’s investigation, no congressional committee had interviewed Susan Rice or Ben Rhodes about Benghazi. … So far, 59 of the 75 witnesses interviewed by the committee had never before been interviewed by Congress. The Select Committee is also the first and only Benghazi investigation to include roughly 70,000 new pages of documents – including the Secretary of State’s emails – and the first to even request access to Ambassador Chris Stevens’ emails.

Two weeks ago, Gowdy had made similar observations. The committee managed to finally get Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, and even Patrick Kennedy on the record, a feat that the so-called Accountability Review Board didn’t even bother to attempt. At that time, Gowdy sounded confident, but did not predict when the probe would end:

Yesterday’s announcement brought about the usual back-and-forth between Republicans and Democrats:

“Republicans are desperate to rehabilitate their image, and yet they continue to drag out the committee’s tenure well into the 2016 election year‎ with no end in sight,” a spokesman for committee Democrats said in a statement. “The simple truth is that the facts haven’t changed, and the core findings of the many previous investigations have stood up to the repeated and wasteful scrutiny.”

A Republican committee aide blasted the announcement.

“It’s very sad that the do-nothing Democrats on the committee would actually brag about how long they’ve obstructed this thorough, fact-centered investigation,” the aide said in an emailed statement. “Their deceptive announcement today is further proof they are focused solely on playing politics, undermining the committee’s work, and helping their endorsed candidate for president. It’s also bizarre for Democrats to claim they will release transcripts that Chairman Gowdy has always said he plans to release with the final report.”

Well, one side is certainly setting up their supporters for a very big let-down when this report emerges. With as many unanswered questions about the lack of security, the lack of response, and the necessity of that station in an area that our allies had long abandoned still left hanging, though, Democrats had better hope that they can find a squirrel or two to distract people when the report finally emerges.

The public does not care about Benghazi, "Counterfeit Bob", this can be determined by the failure of "13 Hours" at the box office. Forbes, not 'left wing' publication tells the tale ...

The movie cost $50 million to produce, and that was the box office take, too.

Michael Bay’s 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. The $50 million action thriller is a blow-by-blow account of the attack on a diplomatic compound in Libya that killed an ambassador and three other Americans in September of 2012. The Paramount/Viacom VIAB -1.18% Inc. release has been heavily marketed to those on the conservative side of the aisle while selling it hard on right-wing radio and television outlets. But the question worth asking is whether the hard sell to the hard right basically turned off everyone else. ...its per-screen-average for the Fri-Sun debut was a merely okay $6,250 p.s.a.

The picture earned $16 million over the Friday-to-Sunday portion of its opening weekend, with an estimated $19m over the Fri-Mon frame. ...That’s under the $110m Fri-Mon opening of American Sniper (duh), a bit below the $37m Fri-Sun debut of Mark Wahlberg’s Lone Survivor in January of 2014, and actually below the $24m debut in March of 2012 of the star-less and mostly under-the-radar Act of Valor.

No on gives a shit about Benghazi, it is history, "Counterfeit Bob", not news

Chicago (AFP) - A former Black Panther activist who spent a record 43 years in solitary confinement was freed from a US prison after decades of legal battles to prove his innocence.

Albert Woodfox is the last of the "Angola Three" activists to taste freedom in a case which provoked outrage among rights groups.

A federal judge had ordered Woodfox's unconditional release in June in a strongly-worded ruling that barred any further trial on charges of murdering prison guard Brent Miller.

Woodfox twice managed to overturn his conviction for the crime, but Louisiana's attorney general had been determined to pursue a third trial and managed to bar Woodfox's release on appeal.

He won his freedom Friday by pleading "no contest" to two lesser charges in a deal which allowed him to be released on his 69th birthday.

"Although I was looking forward to proving my innocence at a new trial, concerns about my health and my age have caused me to resolve this case now and obtain my release with this no-contest plea to lesser charges," Woodfox said in a statement.

"I hope the events of today will bring closure to many."

The plea is not an admission of guilt but instead a legal maneuver in which he "does not contest that the State would present evidence at a new trial from witnesses who said he committed this crime," his lawyers said.

- Obama pushes reforms -

Lousiana's Attorney General Jeff Landry said in a statement that the plea deal brought "finality" and "closure" to the long drawn out case, adding that the arrangement "is in the best interest of justice."

"Albert Woodfox, by his own plea, stands convicted of the homicide of Brent Miller. In accordance with that plea, he was sentenced to 42 years of incarceration and given credit for time served," Landry said.

President Barack Obama's spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Friday that the US leader is convinced that solitary confinement should be used "appropriately and sparingly."

Obama, who recently introduced a ban on solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons, is pushing to introduce broader reforms to America's overcrowded correctional system -- including a drastic reduction in the practice of solitary confinement in federal prisons.

"If our ultimate goal of our criminal justice system is to give people a second chance, after they've paid their debt to society, we're basically setting them up to fail if we don't take seriously the long-term negative consequences of prolonged solitary confinement," Earnest said.

"The kind of reforms that the president put forward are the kind of reforms that can only be implemented in the federal prison system," he said.

The Angola Three said they were targeted by prison officials because they spoke out against inhumane treatment and racial segregation at the notorious Louisiana prison built on a former slave plantation.

Woodfox and Herman Wallace, who were sent to Angola for unrelated cases of armed robbery, were convicted of the Rogers murder in 1972.

Wallace was released in 2013 and died shortly thereafter from cancer.

Robert King, the third member of the group, spent 29 years in solitary until his conviction for a separate prison murder was overturned in 2001.

- 'Extreme and cruel punishment' -

Woodfox's attorney George Kendall called his client's long imprisonment "inhumane."

"Albert survived the extreme and cruel punishment of 40 plus years in solitary confinement only because of his extraordinary strength and character," Kendall said in a statement.

"These inhumane practices must stop. We hope the Louisiana Department of Corrections will reform and greatly limit its use of solitary confinement -- as have an increasing number of jurisdictions around the country."

The case of the Angola Three has brought attention to the psychological toll of solitary confinement, which typically means being locked in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day.

Researchers have found that depriving someone of visual stimulation, human interaction, sunlight or physical activity can change their brain structure in a matter of days.

Yet many of the 80,000 people estimated to be in solitary confinement in US prisons have been there for years on end.

"Today should also mark a pivotal new chapter in reforming the use of prolonged solitary confinement in US prisons and jails," said Jasmine Heiss, a campaigner with Amnesty International USA.

"Moving forward, Woodfox's case must serve as a tragic reminder of the cruelty inflicted by the prison system at its most extreme."

A candidate for District Court judge in Van Buren County, Ark., has withdrawn from the race following scrutiny of text messages he sent in which he called a local county clerk a "hair lipped niger whore," the Arkansas Times reports.

The texts, in which the candidate in question, Kent Tester, misspells what is presumably meant to be a racial slur as "niger," apparently refer to Van Buren County Clerk Pam Bradford, who is white, the Times notes. The messages are from a 2014 exchange between Tester and current District Judge Susan Weaver, in which Tester writes, "I hate texting someone sober."

A candidate for District Court judge in Van Buren County, Ark., has withdrawn from the race following scrutiny of text messages he sent in which he called a local county clerk a "hair lipped niger whore," the Arkansas Times reports.

The texts, in which the candidate in question, Kent Tester, misspells what is presumably meant to be a racial slur as "niger," apparently refer to Van Buren County Clerk Pam Bradford, who is white, the Times notes. The messages are from a 2014 exchange between Tester and current District Judge Susan Weaver, in which Tester writes, "I hate texting someone sober."

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.